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I would welcome Ellery with open arms. The man is a total professional.

I can only say that Raper has done an average job, and local press stories about him getting drunk in the town with some of the players is simply unprofessional. A lot of people will say what a good job he has done with the youngsters. What tosh, he has done nothing, only throw them in the deep end. It should be the academy coaching staff and the likes of Dean Bell who should get all the praise. I doubt that the likes of Brown, Aspinwall and Robinson would have played if it weren’t for such a crippling injury list.

I can’t see any negatives in bringing Ellery in as head coach.

Should have been done at least a season ago!

Are you on glue?

Hey if you are happy with being second best, thats your business. You can't say that Hanley is unprofessional in his approach. He won the super league in his first season as coach with the scum.

We give the Aussies a run for the money whislt he was coach of GB.

Raper is and always will be an average coach. But so long as he is at Wigan he has my support. I just think Hanley would be the better man for the job.

Warrior Wills posted:
I would welcome Ellery with open arms. The man is a total professional.

Somehow I think the board of his former club would not agree with you. His disagreements with the higher-ups at the Skints had a knock-on effect on his team's performance, and to be honest I think he totally lost it towards the end. Anyone remember the Skints being thrashed in the World Club Challenge but Hanley saying that his team could have won? What planet was he on at the time?

I can only say that Raper has done an average job, and local press stories about him getting drunk in the town with some of the players is simply unprofessional. A lot of people will say what a good job he has done with the youngsters. What tosh, he has done nothing, only throw them in the deep end. It should be the academy coaching staff and the likes of Dean Bell who should get all the praise. I doubt that the likes of Brown, Aspinwall and Robinson would have played if it weren’t for such a crippling injury list.

Unbelievable. Why do we have reserve-grade teams if we're not going to bring them through to the first team? The Chairman's stated aims are to build a Wigan team ideally of Wigan-bred players, and that means developing some of our kids. Aspinwall and (I think) Robinson were getting occasional 1st team exposure even before Raper arrived, and they would probably have gone by now if they had not had any chance of first team football.

I agree that Dean Bell doesn't get the recognition he deserves for nurturing the young talent at the club, but Raper still has the job of integrating the young players into an experienced team, which is quite different from having kids play with their peers.

As for an average job: 1 x Challenge Cup. SL playoffs despite an injury list at the end of last year, 3rd place in the league despite an injury crisis this year. Not excellent, by any means, but we've beaten all of the usual title contenders this year and I wouldn't bet against us for the title. Give him at least until the end of the year to show what he can do.

I can't see any negatives in bringing Ellery in as head coach.

Should have been done at least a season ago!

Disruption to the team, confusion amongst spectators, compensation being paid out yet again to individuals... And to be honest I'm not totally convinced of his coaching credentials. Yes he had success at Saints, but the club admits it spent heavily to get short-term success without any kind of long-term stability, and he had full use of those resources. I would prefer long-term stability and long-term success.

Thanks Fraggle, you've saved me a lot of typing and I think you're quite right, however everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I would not want to see Hanley in the coaches post even if SR chose to leave.

I agree. As much as I respect that Hanley was a fantastic and wonderful player both for us and GB, it does not necessarily mean that he will be a great coach...and I think this has been proven with past experience.

I think Raper is doing a wonderful job and would be very sad to see him go.

By the way...it isn't such a bad thing Warrior when your boss takes all of the staff on a jolly around town. I'd like my boss if they did that....but alas they don't!

Did anyone see Ellery on the bbc superleageue show earlier on in the season?

The mans clueless!

Have we all forgot how he stormed out of wigan cause captaincy was given to Faz and not him. Any one with a couple of brain cells can do a half decent job down the scum as is currently being proved.

10 years and Rapers name will be heard in the same conversations as Monies!

I remember seeing that show rugbynut and thinking the bloke was like a cure for insomnia. No problems about his playing abilities at the time but not the stuff that super league coaches are made of

Dont know if the rumours/hints from Whelan are true but I personally don't want raper to go. Hes put more than 100% effort into getting wigan where we are now, at the beginning of the season a lot of people doubted him and even on here were saying we would probably not make it into the top 6 this year and look who we've beaten and where we are, we could still finish in the top 2 because of the players and stuart.
It takes a coach who is more than average to work in and as a team with the players, and you can see what winning means to him. If he goes this year I think this will unsettle our team.